Cross Fire
by HeyyitsJayy
Summary: The Sinnoh region is erupting in violence. Gang warfare is becoming a big problem. Things are uneasy in the region, and for high school graduate Ethan Morgan and his group of friends, life isn't going to be fun. Rated T for where the story will go eventually.
1. A Letter from Grandma

My Dearest Isabelle,

Congratulations on graduating high school, Isabelle! And the same goes to you, too, Ethan. I know that you brought this to Ethan as soon as you got it, Isabelle. I'm so proud of you both for getting this far. I can't believe you two are already eighteen and graduated! I remember when I came to see you in Orlando when you both were such little things. That was when your grandfather was still alive. I know he's looking down at you with love.

Your grandfather's ranch is doing well. There has been a large wave of young ones being born. Most of the eggs have hatched now and the ladies and I are doing our best to give them all the care they need. We've had some young ones that you and Ethan might be interested in. I'm so excited that you two are finally coming to Sinnoh to become pokemon trainers! I know you both will raise strong and beautiful pokemon that will win every contest or gym battle.

On that note, I have booked your trip to Veilstone City on the S.S. Anne. I got you a room with two others. I'm sorry but that was the best I could do. Our political sway can only get us so far out of Kanto. I'm sure the other two in your room will be lovely. Once you reach Veilstone, I have arranged a flight over to Twinleaf so I can personally take you to the ranch where you can meet the young ones to pick out. I hope you've been reading the books I sent you back in August! You know how little information the regions here share with you back there.

I'm sorry this letter is so short, but I will be seeing you in two weeks. The boat will leave June 1 in Tampa at 4PM. I trust your parents to get you both there on time.

Until then,

Grandma Harrison


	2. Ship to Sinnoh

**A/N: This story is a blend of animeverse and gameverse, although actual anime canon characters won't appear. Not really sure what else to say except enjoy!**

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"Isabelle, wait for me!"

"Who was the one who had the idea to be really slow getting out of the car? The boat leaves in ten minutes, Ethan!"

Of course it was going to come to this. I was forced to sprint behind Isabelle as we attempted to get into line. It wasn't my fault that I couldn't find my phone! Her parent's car was a mess from her younger brother and it slipped out of my pocket. Sue me. And now we were going to miss our ride on the boat to Sinnoh.

Damn children.

At least her parents were nice enough to stall in front of the building where we had to check-in so we didn't have as far to run. I grabbed my ticket tightly. It would be just my luck that it would fly out of my hand and cause chaos when I finally got in line. The letter from Isabelle's Grandma Harrison had come three days before and we had been in a panic to get ready. In reality we should've been ready. This had been the plan since freshman year.

You see, Isabelle's grandfather is Brock Harrison, ex-gym leader/ famous breeder. His daughter moved to America when she turned eighteen to start a new life away from the politics of the pokemon regions. She started a whole life here. She met my dad and they became the best of friends. They settled down with other people and Isabelle was born six months before I was. We've been best friends since the moment we met. We grew up with books about pokemon, and we dreamed of being trainers ourselves. Of course, that changed a bit when I decided my junior year to be a coordinator.

Immigration between the pokemon regions and the continents is really, really hard to do. Basically you need to have someone on the pokemon side to know anything about them. It's a lot easier to get to the continents, but barely. We have political sway through Isabelle's grandfather, but it was still a battle for Mrs. Harrison to get us over to Sinnoh. It took two years, many government survey-things and letters from references to get us over. I think the regions want to keep everything a secret so we can't use their technologies. I guess it's more peaceful on that side of the world then on ours.

You know the rumors of natu and xatu coming from South America? It's true, but the governments of the continents made it a huge secret. It's common knowledge over there in the regions, I guess. Yup, they captured every natu and xatu in the Amazon and sent them over to Johto, and I guess they migrated to some other regions.

We made it to the back of the line right as the last person was giving their ticket to the guy looking over luggage. He sent it through some X-ray machine and let her get on. I couldn't help but wonder where she was getting off. The ship traveled the world but you had to get special clearance to go past the continents. When she was gone, Isabelle stepped up and showed him her backpack.

He gave us both a look. Probably because the both of us had the permission needed to go past Asia. He didn't comment, though, which was much better. We were going to get questioned enough as it was. When he gave Isabelle her ticket back, he grabbed my satchel as well.

"You both apparently are coming back to the regions. You have special quarters on the upper floor. Congratulations, you have first-class status."

We looked at each other. Grandma Harrison had to have pulled huge strings to get that to happen.

"Yes, surprised? Your things check through. Take them and get out of here. I expect you both to be more punctual next time."

We nodded and walked through to the gangplank and into the ship.

The ship was amazing. Everything was so beautiful and expensive. And we were first-class! Something was going to get broken, I could already feel it. I was clumsy enough as it was. Isabelle says I'm 'oblivious' but I think she's crazy.

I just couldn't get over how amazing everything looked. Our room had a veranda, which made us both really excited. Isabelle and I loved the ocean. The room was huge and could easily house like six people. Grandma Harrison did fine with this. I still couldn't believe that his was going to happen.

The room was split into two bedrooms with two beds and a large living space between them. A small bathroom was connected to each bedroom. Our room was a lot less expensive-looking than the rest of the boat, which put me a bit more at ease.

"Isabelle, your grandma is the most amazing person ever!" I was nearly shouting as I flopped on the large bed.

She laughed. "I'm going to give her a huge hug!"

A moment of silence passed. Isabelle was giggling to herself, and soon I couldn't help but join in. When we calmed down, it was my turn to speak. "So what baby pokemon do you think she has waiting for us?"

"I don't know. I showed you everything in the envelope. You were there when I opened it."

"I know! But what do you hope she has?"

"I hope she has a dragon they can't find in Sinnoh. Wouldn't that be awesome?"

"Do you remember anything they told us? Dragons aren't for beginners."

"Your point?"

I sighed. I was not going to win this argument. "Well I hope she has a sandshrew. They're so cute! And they're from the Kanto region so you aren't going to see very many people with them. Or lotad. Have you seen their little faces?"

We continued bantering for a few more minutes. After a while our hopes started to get a little out-there when Isabelle started talking about phione.

"Really, Isabelle? They're legendary pokemon. Even there they aren't proven to exist!"

She rolled her eyes. "Really. C'mon, let's have a look around, shall we?"

The next week rolled by quickly. Isabelle and I toured the ship, got fancy meals, and could snack wherever we wanted for free. I was a little shaky about using that privilege at first thinking that everything was going to be billed to Grandma Harrison. After being assured that it was a perk for everyone, I was more than happy to eat chicken whenever I got hungry.

We were quickly getting used to living out of our bags. Of course we brought more with us since we were still in society (and high-class society if I might add) so we bought extra clothing. We were hoping to have Grandma Harrison hold it for us or use it for bedding. We weren't sure, but we knew that the older woman would do something with it.

At the end of the week, we docked in our first pokemon region. The place was called Unova and I guess we were here because they'd finally let up some of their borders after a long time of solitude. I wasn't sure of the political climate of the area. All the books we got from Grandma Harrison were mostly about Sinnohan pokemon or pokemon that could be found in the region. We knew next to nothing about Unova or its pokemon.

It was the last day in port and we gained a few new passengers on our deck. Isabelle and I spent the day in the city soaking up the culture and sights. We saw a few pokemon that neither of us could name, but they were adorable. I hoped that we could maybe get one somehow. If there was a will, I would find a way.

When we returned to our cabin we found the door ajar. Confused we walked into two new people in our room. Isabelle cleared her throat.

"Um, hi. What are you doing here?"

The boy looked up at us and jumped. "Oh, hi there. We thought someone else was here. I guess they didn't tell you?"

"Tell us what?" It was my turn to sound suspicious.

"We're the other two in your room. You knew there were four people, right?"

"My grandma told us that-"

"That's us. " The girl next to the boy finally spoke up. Compared to the boy, she looked incredibly frail.

She was quite skinny. Almost impossibly skinny. I wondered if she actually ate food or like three leaves a day or something. Her hair was light brown and done into a pixie cut. She was wearing clothes that were not weather appropriate. Who wore black jeans in June heat? There was this aura about her that she was not as frail as she appeared.

The boy was like her opposite in every way. A good two or three inches taller, he was at least filled out to what I thought would be regular for a guy. They shared the same complexion, but that was it. His hair was much darker and much longer than hers. While the girl's hair seemed to stay with her face, his poofed out a bit.

"I'm Dom Hansuke and this is my best friend Andy Ammon"

The girl just nodded and didn't say anything.

"Um, I'm Ethan Morgan and this is my best friend/ partner-in-crime Isabelle Blanc."

"So I guess we'll be living together? Where are you getting off?" Isabelle went right into the questions.

"We're leaving at Veilstone."

"Same here."

The conversation stopped at that point. After a few more awkward seconds, Isabelle retreated to our room and I quickly left with her. She sighed and let herself fall on the sheets.

Isabelle has always been a little over dramatic. With my last two boyfriends, she was an avid shipper of us. I feel like some of the relationships affected her more than me. Now I couldn't help but smile as she rubbed her eyes and stared at the wall.

"Well at least we know who else your grandma put us with. And they're from Unova! Think of all the things we can learn from them!"

Isabelle looked at me. "Still, I wish they'd given us warning. We're four days from Sinnoh, according to the cruise channel." She groaned and rolled over.

I sighed and grabbed the book I was reading. I had just opened to where I had left off when a knock at the door forced me to look up. I grabbed the bridge of my nose. "Come in, its' open."

The guy, Dom, stood there. He looked really awkward and I couldn't blame him. This was just a really bad way to get introduced. "Um, hi. So are you trainers?"

Isabelle looked up from under her pillows. "How did you know?"

He shrugged. "Well my parents want me to go through Unova. Trainers travelling to other regions get better rooms apparently. New trainers get the best perks. Andy and I just got our starters and we did see you have any so we weren't sure." He trailed off near the end.

"Well, we aren't trainers yet. I'm a coordinator. Isabelle's grandma is giving us our first pokemon once we get to Twinleaf. She has a ranch there with a lot of new babies that we can pick from."

"Okay, that's cool, I guess. Um, so you wouldn't mind if we let our pokemon out, would you?"

Isabelle and I looked at each other for a minute before shrugging.

The boy looked infinitely relieved. "Thank Arceus! Word of warning; they're both fire pokemon so sorry if anything catches on fire."

I couldn't help but burst out laughing. "I'll try to blame the wingull."

The guy seemed to appreciate my humor. He nodded out of the room, leaving me and Isabelle to ourselves again. These next four days looked a little more bearable.

I was somewhat right, at least. The next four days were absolute torture. It had been fun when we had the world to see, but now we were counting down the days until we saw Grandma Harrison. We got to know our roommates a bit better. Apparently they were like us in a lot of ways. Andy and Dom grew up together in Nimbasa City and they'd been best friends since preschool. Although my friendship with Isabelle started the moment we met as babies, it was close enough to be scary. The girls were like two peas in a pod and quickly befriended each other over photography. I only knew of Andy's pokemon because she would take pictures for me. Apparently Nikkor was quite shy and the little cyndaquil would only pose if Andy asked.

Dom's starter, a little litwick named Willow, was seen a lot more around the room. He was a little fire ball rather than some possessed candle. Apparently they came from Unova which explained why I never saw one before. He was quite personable, which was cute until he walked into me showering for a hug. I kicked him out of the bathroom as fast as possible. I didn't want his flame to get wet and for him to die.

It was about noon when the call came out that we would be boarding Veilstone in two hours. Isabelle and I were already packed and ready. It took the other two ten minutes to get their stuff together. It wasn't that they were messy, but they had so much stuff. It was like they didn't know what was going to happen so they brought all these things that they really didn't need. A lot of it looked expensive, too.

"Are you sure you need all of that?" Isabelle hung in the doorway, not wanting to enter the room. A small squeal from her a second later meant she'd been hugged by Will.

"Most of this is camera stuff," Andy looked up from under her bed. "Although I should probably get stuff for Nikkor."

I rolled my eyes. Of course she would bring expensive cameras. Art people.

They got into another conversation about cameras and photography. I sat down in one of the large couches. In twenty-four hours, I wouldn't have one of these. I was going to enjoy it to the last second, dammit.

I was sprawled out on the couch when Will wiggled his way out of the room. Seeing me, his eyes lit up and it was like the candle could fly. I braced myself for the little ghost's impact. For being a ghost, he was quite heavy when he tackled you. I grunted at the impact and was driven deeper into the light blue cushions.

I guess my grunt was loud enough that Dom poked his head out of the door. "You okay?"

Rubbing my side, I looked over at him. "I will be."

Dom smiled. "Will, leave Ethan alone."

"Lit!" The small pokemon wiggled back to Dom.

There was something bugging me about him. Over the trip both Dom and Andy were incredibly secretive about why they left Unova. There could be thousands of reasons for it, and I wanted to know why. There was a moment of silence before I spoke up. "Um, why did you leave Unova? Why have a journey out of your home region?"

Dom thought for a second. "Why are you travelling to Sinnoh for yours?"

"I asked first."

"I won't answer. Your turn."

"I'm from the continents. America."

I could see the wheels spinning in the guy's mind as soon as I said anything. Dom opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "Well, that's something. I guess I'm here because-"

As soon as he started talking, the ship's horn echoed through our room, obliterating anything else Dom was going to say. Dom coughed a little. "Well, I guess we hit land. Better go grab everything."


End file.
